50. Chapter 50
Maryn
Iclosed my eyes and exhaled slowly.
I wasn’t convinced Elias believed Helena’s story. But we went back to bed, two guards outside the door, and he wrapped his arms around me and didn’t let go. There was no way out now.
I looked up, and Paul gave me a thumbs-up. “Good luck… Maryn.”
I wanted to laugh. I might have if my stomach wasn’t trying to exit my body.
I was never supposed to be here. I’d told Elias to let Sera do this so he’d believe I wasn’t performing.
I’d kept myself alive, kept him calm, kept my head down through all of it.
Somehow, every choice had led me here anyway.
To the one place in the Covenant States designed to make sure only one woman walked out.
A buzzer sounded overhead, and I stepped through the door.
I glanced around at a room no bigger than Elias’s bedroom. In each corner, cameras were affixed to the wall. A set of drones also buzzed around my head. They couldn’t die.
A pair of brown eyes stared back at me from the other side of the glass. The room across from mine was its exact mirror.
We saw it at the same moment, darting for the black box divided by the glass line.
I touched its top first, and another buzzer sounded. Shit.
Sera looked up as a soft hissing sound began, and a thick green gas poured into her side of the room. I looked to my corner, where only a trickle of the substance was sifting in.
Her eyes widened, and she swore loudly, attacking her box with blood-red nails. They scraped and tore at it.
I hesitated, ducking underneath and searching for any latches or openings. Nothing visible. I ran my fingers over its smooth surface. Tiny grooves ran along either side. It must slide one way or the other. Whatever was in it would go to whoever could get it to slide their way.
I looked up at the ceiling. A strange pattern was printed there, bisected by glass, so I could only make out half of it clearly.
Did we have to work together? Like in Trial Eight? No. Everyone knew only one person made it out of Trial Eleven. It had been that way since the first Rite ball ever held. Ever since, the first runner-up couldn’t stand the thought of her match with anyone else.
She killed them both on their wedding night and hung herself in the same room.
So what did the pattern on the roof have to do with this trial?
The hiss grew louder on my side, and the haze began pouring in.
“Mother damn!” Sera shouted, the gas on her side growing thicker. Her eyes were wide, the panic in them plain.
“Sera.”
She darted from the box to her door, rattling the handle.
“Sera, we can figure this out.”
She cackled loudly, spinning back to face me. “I was never going to win.”
She raked her long nails through her hair. It stuck up everywhere she’d clawed it. “I walked into an execution.”
I’d seen the gas on her side first, too. Had every Rite always come down to this? A man choosing who walked out alive? Had Elias always known?
I shook my head. “Come on. We can figure it out. Together.”
She banged on the glass between us. I backed up.
“Fuck you, Maryn Veil.”
The gas was sour. I exhaled shallowly. It was making her manic. I had to solve it before I couldn’t think, too.
I ignored her as she stormed around her room, banging on walls and shouting, staring up at the ceiling once more. It was some sort of…
It couldn’t be that easy.
I approached the box again. I tapped four times on the top, moved my hand to the side, and tapped once. Reaching underneath, I tapped twice. On the other side, I tapped three times. I rested my hand against the part of the box facing me and tapped once.
Nothing.
Sera’s eyes widened as she watched me. She looked up at her ceiling and did the same. Her taps were erratic and loud, but she moved faster than I did.
I started again, this time on the side of the box facing me, and repeated the process until I reached the final side.
Nothing.
I tried again, crazed thoughts beginning to dance through my mind. Thoughts of murdering Elias, taking his place as president.
I laughed loudly, but started tapping again.
We were both tapping now, talking aloud to ourselves, tugging at our clothes.
I touched the final side.
The box clicked.
Gears turned, and the box began to slide.
“No.” Sera banged the sides of the box as it slid toward me. “No!” she screamed. “I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you!”
The box stopped, and I lifted. Now that it wasn’t held down by glass, it came up easily.
Nestled at the bottom was a slender key.
It was shaped like those from the pre-war era. The kind they used to lock doors before everything was controlled by our tablets or biometrics. I reached inside, lifting it and holding it to the camera.
“Maryn. Wait.”
I turned toward the door, my steps unsteady as the fog grew thicker.
“Maryn.” Her second plea seized my heart and squeezed.
I turned to face her. She was barely visible through the green haze, but she pressed her face to the glass, tears streaming down her white eyes. Blind. It had blinded her. It would blind me too.
I let myself look. Really look. Then I turned back to the door.
“Tell my baby nephew I love him.”
My hands were shaking. The key scraped against the lock before it caught.
“I will.”
She slid to the floor, her cheek pressed against the glass, sweaty palms smearing a line as she went.
I pushed the door open, a crack, but looked back once more. She deserved for someone to stay until the end. Her eyes fluttered, foam spilling over her lips.
“Goodbye, Sera.”
In the end, she never had a chance.
I turned, wiping a tear from my cheek, and pushed through the door.